Boehringer Ingelheim and Optimum Patient Care have launched a new COPD registry, APEX COPD (Advancing the Patient Experience in COPD), to better understand COPD and how it can be typically treated in primary care offices.
According to BI, the COPD registry will be the first-of-its-kind, specifically designed to improve the management of patients in the primary care setting, which reflects the reality of the COPD patient experience.
The COPD registry will report findings and insights to be shared in academic journals and medical congresses. In addition, the registry will provide real-time, patient-reported information as well as relevant information from the electronic medical record (EMR) in a structured format to physicians at the point-of-care. This information will aid physicians in making a clinical judgment.
Despite COPD’s high prevalence, only a fraction of people with the disease have been diagnosed and some diagnosed patients may not be getting the treatment they need, BI reports.
Primary care physicians treat the majority of COPD patients — more than pulmonologists or any other type of healthcare provider. However, recent research suggests greater awareness is needed among primary care physicians to ensure a more timely diagnosis and appropriate management of this chronic condition, BI said.
“Our partnership with Optimum Patient Care reflects our commitment to improving COPD treatment by working to identify and address the challenges facing primary care doctors and patients,” said Gokul Gopalan, MD, MPH, Executive Director, Head Clinical Development, Medical Affairs, Respiratory Primary Care at Boehringer Ingelheim. “For nearly a century, Boehringer Ingelheim has been committed to leading efforts to advance scientific knowledge and improve the medicine we provide at the point-of-care. By partnering with another industry leader, Optimum Patient Care, we hope to combine our expertise to bring new insights to help primary care physicians and patients make informed decisions to treat COPD.”
The registry, which will eventually enroll 3,000 COPD patients who are being treated by a primary care physician, will retrospectively and prospectively collect EMR data for patients and supplement these data through patient-reported information.
“This initiative is unique from other COPD initiatives in the fact that it will combine patient-reported information with EMR data at the point-of-care,” said David Price, founder and CEO of Optimum Patient Care. “One of our big aims is to integrate this information and present it to clinicians in primary care and patients in a way that is useful, meaningful, and in a way that changes medical care.”
